Coming down: CLPS: Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1
Firefly Aerospace says that its Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander mission has ended as expected, completing all its objectives. Look at this Space News article for more details.
CLPS is making the Moon a busy place. While the IM-2 CLPS mission is targeting a March 6th landing, Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 has already successfully landed – this one in Mare Crisium. Here’s what they brought with them:
Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER)
LISTER is one of two payloads provided by Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin). LISTER will measure the heat flow from the interior of the Moon. To achieve that, that probe will penetrate more than 2 m into the ground, using a pneumatic drill, and then measure the thermal gradient and the thermal conductivity for the depth interval of the regolith penetrated, using a custom-built heat flow needle.
This is being done to “provide key constraints to the Moon’s thermal evolution and the history of the crust-mantle differentiation”, as Honeybee states on their page.
Whether the instrument was named for the third-class technician of the mining ship Red Dwarf, Dave Lister, remains unknown.
Lunar PlanetVac (LPV)
The other Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin) payload is their planetary sample collection device PlanetVac. It will collect lunar regolith by firing a blast of gas into the lunar surface to disturb the regolith and loft it into a collection chamber. There it will be visually inspected using a camera and sieved using further gas jets. This will be done within the sorting station to test regolith dust adhesion and efficiency of gas jets as a cleaning agent. And it will demonstrate this fast and low cost, low mass alternative for sample collection.
The development of PlanetVac was supported by the Planetary Society and its members.
Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR)
NGLR (University of Maryland) will support the determination of the distance between Earth and the Moon by reflecting very short laser pulses from Earth-based Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories (LLROs) and measuring the laser pulse transit time to the Moon and back, supporting sub-millimeter range measurements. More detail at NASA.
Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC)
This totally RadPC (Montana State University) will demonstrate a computer that can recover from faults caused by ionizing radiation. While RadPC prototypes have already been tested aboard the ISS and Earth-orbiting satellites, this will prove the biggest trial yet by demonstrating the computer’s ability to withstand space radiation passing through the Earth’s radiation belts, while in transit to the Moon, and on the lunar surface.
Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS)
The moon is a very dusty place, and it is a good idea to have tech to deal with this. For example, by using electric fields to move dust from surfaces and to prevent dust from accumulating. The EDS (NASA Kennedy Space Center) can lift, transport, and remove particles from surfaces with no moving parts, and will demonstrate the ability for the first time on the lunar surface, showing the feasibility of self-cleaning glass and thermal radiator surfaces. The EDS will be released from a fifth leg of the lander and positioned directly onto the lunar surface to maximize dust contact.
Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI)
LEXI (Boston University; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Johns Hopkins University) will capture a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field that drives geomagnetic disturbances and storms. This instrument will provide the first global images showing the edge of Earth’s magnetic field for critical insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding our planet impact Earth.
Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS)
LMS (Southwest Research Institute) will characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle by measuring electric and magnetic fields. This investigation will help determine the Moon’s temperature structure and thermal evolution to understand how the Moon has cooled and chemically differentiated since it formed.
Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE)
LuGRE (Italian Space Agency (ASI); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) will receive and track signals from the GPS and Galileo navigation satellite constellations during the Earth-to-Moon transit and throughout a full lunar day on the Moon’s surface. This demonstration will help characterize and extend Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based navigation and timing to lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface, providing lunar spacecraft with accurate position, velocity, and time estimations autonomously, on board, and in real time.
Stereo CAmera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS)
SCALPSS (NASA Langley Research Center) will use stereo imaging photogrammetry to capture the impact of rocket plume on lunar regolith as the lander descends on the Moon’s surface. The high-resolution stereo images will aid in creating models to predict lunar regolith erosion – an important task as bigger, heavier payloads are delivered to the Moon near each other.
Regular updates are posted on https://fireflyspace.com/news/blue-ghost-mission-1-live-updates/
And of course there is a Wikipedia page dedicated to the mission.
